Vast numbers of prototype electronic circuit boards are assembled daily by industry, research operations and by the hobbyist. These boards utilize a very large number of integrated circuits and each may use one or more wire wrap, solder pin and insulation displacement sockets. Integrated circuits normally employed are provided with dual-in-line leads and are normally referred to as "DIPs". In each application, the work of the assembler, and later on the debugger, or repairman, could be simplified if a reliable, simple system for quickly identifying each pin and each circuit being used were available.
At present, only the wire wrap socket systems have an identification system and these have the disadvantages of not holding the circuit socket in place, they do not identify both faces of the circuit and they are expensive to use. In some applications, individual wires of a circuit are tagged by employing wrap around tags having numerical indicia thereon to the individual pins of an integrated circuit. This is a time consuming and tedious task. Perforated rigid plastic tags, having identifying indicia thereon, are available and are adapted to be forced over and retained by the sharp pins of an individual integrated socket. These tags will fit only the wire wrap sockets and there is always a tendency to prick the fingers when pushing the plastic tags over the sharp circuit pins. Also, if soldering of the joint is necessary, the plastic tags tend to melt and become unreadable while also contaminating the joint. Cut and glued paper labels, with freehand written data thereon, have also been employed for the top of integrated circuits and for the circuit boards but these are time consuming and inconvenient to use, as well as having a tendency to be destroyed if soldering is required.
Presently, most integrated circuit sockets, as used in prototyping or limited production PC boards, are attached to the circuit boards by use of glue, room temperature vulcanized (RTV) rubber cement, or the like. This is a slow, time consuming, and messy operation with the adhesive having a tendency to be forced through the pin holes in the circuit board and possibly interfering with the integrity of the electrical connection.
Accordingly, there is a definite need in the art for an improved system for attaching integrated circuits to an electronic circuit board and to provide visual identification of the integrated circuits employed.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide positive, attachment structure for releasably securing integrated circuits to an electronic circuit board.
Another object of the present invention is a sticker system to give visual indication of the individual pin number and location on an integrated circuit when attached to an electronic circuit board.
A further object of the present invention is an identification sticker adapted to be placed on the bottom of an electronic circuit board to give visual indication of the pin number, location and circuit orientation of an integrated circuit attached thereto.
An additional object of the present invention is an identification sticker system including an identifying top sticker for an integrated circuit and a bottom sticker for attachment to the circuit board beneath the integrated circuit connected thereto.
A further object of the present invention is to provide color coded and numerical indicia, mirror image, labels for identifying an integrated circuit from the top and from the bottom when the integrated circuit is secured to an electronic circuit board.
A still further object of the present invention is a novel color-coded dispenser for stowing and dispensing a plurality of identifying and attachment circuit stickers.